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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Participating on Orly's "Off the Street Into the Journal" workshop was amazing, as usual...creativity, delicious food and a community of like-minded people made for a wonderful Saturday. Won't you take a peek?

Orly had instructed us to gather some papers found on the streets, which was not exactly easy in some neighborhoods*, but this is what she had collected to show us and we were welcome to use what we wanted if we didn't have papers of our own...

...this was a spectacularly unique street find that Orly shared with us - it seemed like a huge paper flower, like a desert bloom!

My found papers are on the far left and on the right side of the page - the paint smeared page is from Orly's collection as was the scrap in the upper right corner. The street paper on the right will reappear in a different version in the second spread...

This is where I got to learn and play with molding paste - I can't wait to continue working with it later this summer on my own! Layers are being built with paint, paper and molding paste...the bottom section will reveal itself soon...

I was so absorbed in learning and experimenting with new supplies and techniques that I nearly forgot to take pictures of my journal spread! This is how the first spread ended, though I might add a little more to it later on, one day...

And I was so absorbed in creating that I almost forgot to take some pictures of our lunch, until one of my fellow journal-ers urged me to take pictures before people got to the food!! And would you blame them for not waiting??

Chicken and beans with corn on the cob and guacamole - it was like "street food" from downtown LA! I told Orly that there wasn't enough GUACAMOLE for everyone, since I love, love, LOVE guacamole! Next time, I'll need a whole bowl for myself, Orly...I'm just sayin'!!

See that salad in the foreground? It had very yummy nuts that I'll be looking for at my local Trader Joes. And there were tasty LEMON BARS made by one of the students...have I mentioned my LOVE of LEMON BARS? There are no pictures of the lemon bars because I ate them all**...JUST KIDDING!! About eating them all that is!

After a tasty meal with dessert it was time to get back to CREATING...here is my second spread...

We each made a stencil for the first spread and I used elements of the cut out for this second spread. If you look closely, you can see the street paper in the lower left corner is related to the paper used in my first spread, with the cogs...as I was drying these pages, Orly was enthusiastic about how it looked. I had to remind her that it was just the beginning!

The second spread with more color, paint and molding paste layers, just like a real street wall...add some hand written messages...

...and we've got more street art with a wall of graffiti!

Orly had asked us to use an image which you can see on the upper right hand side of my spread and we needed to find a way to connect it with our focal point, which for my spread is the young girl with the cogs. Somehow I felt that the young girl was protecting the older woman in the image as I felt she was protecting the "Cog of Creativity" in the corner...

click on the image to get a better view of the cogs flying in space and what they represent...

The woman represents Wisdom to me, which needs to be just as protected as Creativity...

I love being in Orly's workshops for many reasons: community, thoughtful conversation and amazingly delicious food, but one of the biggest reasons I love being Orly's workshops is that I learn new things and come away with new techniques that I just might incorporate into my own work. I also create work in Orly's workshops that I don't usually create on my own, such as watercolor painting and the street art from this weekend. Her way of working encourages me to push my own boundaries, which we all need to do in order to grow and expand as artists...actually, it's a good thing to do to be better Human Beings!

* - Having clean streets is generally a wonderful thing to have in your neighborhood, unless you are looking for items to use in an art workshop!

4 comments:

Hello. This looks like a fabulous workshop and lunch(yum). Love the second spread you created and the idea of creating together in a community event like this one. Wondering now what's happening around here that i can get involved with.